Türkiye announces agreement with Spain on second aircraft carrier construction PHOTO

Türkiye has ordered an aircraft carrier from Spain's Navantia. Navantia is the fifth-largest shipbuilder in Europe and the ninth-largest in the world. Türkiye's second aircraft carrier, to be named the Trakya, will be built in Türkiye.

Work on the new ship, which will be built in Turkish shipyards, will be directly linked to the San Fernando shipyard's systems department, according to Patronlar Dunyasi. This high-security technical department is responsible for the design of the warships built by Navantia and is located in the La Carraca arsenal.

The Systems Division was responsible for designing the command and control platforms of the first aircraft carrier ordered by the Turkish Navy from Navantia at the end of 2015. The TCG Anadolu was built at the Sedef shipyard in Tuzla. At the same time, both the command and control platform and the defence system were designed by engineers from the San Fernando Systems Division.

The TCG Anadolu, a 232-metre multi-role ULS (universal landing ship) capable of carrying armed drones, was commissioned into the Turkish Navy in April 2023. With this ship, Türkiye became the fifteenth country in the world to have an operational aircraft carrier in its fleet.

The Turkish President announced that negotiations with Spain were in the final stages at the end of October. In the first week of January, the Turkish Defence Industry Executive Commission greenlighted the contract. The Spanish shipyard submitted a proposal to its Turkish partner Sedef to build a second landing ship in 2020. The agreement to build the second aircraft carrier, to be called Trakya, lasted four years. Trakya will be a ship with higher characteristics than Anadolu.